Mosquito traps of the prior art use a number of different methods for attracting insects to the trap, including steady or flashing lights and/or chemical emissions. Many of these attractants are intended to simulate a characteristic of a breathing mammal, being the mosquito's normal food source.
Heat is recognised as being an attractant to mosquitoes, and some traps of the prior art emit heated air in an attempt to simulate an animal exhaling. While this may assist in attracting mosquitoes to the trap, mosquitoes will generally not fly against an air current into an aperture which is emitting heated air, and so there remains the problem of getting the mosquitoes into the trap to a position in which they will be caught and/or killed. Many traps of the prior art rely on a fan to suck the mosquitoes inside the trap, but the applicant's studies have shown that mosquitoes are relatively strong fliers and will only be caught by the airflow generated by a typical trap when they are already inside the trap and within an “effective zone” of the fan, which is typically very close to the fan.
Traps with very powerful fans may have an extended “effective zone”, but may also be noisy, and may create strong exhaust streams which may deter mosquitoes from approaching the trap.
Problems with some traps of the prior art include that they are complicated and expensive, they do not simulate the required characteristics with sufficient accuracy, and/or that they do not actively or effectively attract insects inside the trap to within an effective zone of killing/retention means of the trap.